first snow

Woke up to the first snow of the season. Spent most of the morning in bed reading. After lunch, Rowan and I went for a lovely walk to Craigmillar Castle (see extra). Next week we are going on strike again. A warm-up of three days. Our dispute is still not resolved: our pay is declining relative to inflation, our workload is increasing, the gender and ethnic pay gaps still exist and the university management makes heavy use of casualised contracts. On top of all that our pensions are being attacked. According to both the union's modeler and the official USS modeler I would lose somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4 of my pension. The pension provider claims the scheme is too risky. However, they seem to want to insure against some serious catastrophe or even the end of capitalism itself. It did look into how my pay developed over the last decade. In 2018 my annual pre-tax pay is about £3.5k less than if it had followed inflation. You can read up about the details on my blog. Expect some blips from the picket line next week.